Bailey Unicorn Cabrera

£19,795 • MTPLM 1598kg • MIRO 1441kg

VERDICT: 75/100

Great layout but lacks lower kitchen storage space

Review first appeared in Caravan Buyer magazine, April 2012 issue view original test <click here>

The Cabrera packs a high specification (including Alde heating) into a modest weight. And it has a brilliantly convenient shower door design…

Inside the caravan:

The new Cabrera proves that a caravan designed for use in sub-zero temperatures doesn’t have to be either heavy or particularly expensive. The Cabrera is one of two island-bed models which were added to Bailey’s Unicorn range late last year; the other is the Pamplona, longer, and on twin axles, so it’s heavier and it costs more. Both caravans have their showering and washing facilities immediately forward of the bedroom. Both caravans have Alde heating and inboard water tanks, two features that render them suitable for winter use.
What makes both these models special is the door arrangement of the shower room and loo…

Showering 9/10

Imagine a caravan in which someone can be having a shower while someone else is cleaning their teeth. Both have privacy from each other and also from both the bedroom and lounge. That’s because the shower has a room to itself, and the loo and the washbasin share a separate room.

The door arrangement for these two rooms is genius. The shower room and the room with the toilet and washbasin face each other the corridor which runs from the kitchen to the bedroom. The door forward of this configuration is hinged on the offside, so it can close off the lounge, or close across across the shower room. The toilet compartment door opens across the aperture to the bedroom. So you have a choice. You can seal off the living area and leave both shower and loo open to the bedroom. Or you can close the door against the bedroom so that the shower, loo and washbasin rooms are open to those sleeping in the double bed that you can make up in the lounge. More importantly, you can close off the shower, leaving the corridor open, so that the toilet-wash area can be used while the shower is also in use. It’s a layout we’ve seen before – but rarely with such a definite division, both ends of the washing area being sealed off by solid doors, rather than making use of a pleated partition for one side of the area.

The internal water tank design is unique to Bailey. It’s in its own hatch on the offside. When frost threatens, you can switch the system from your external water container to the internal tank by pulling a lever (beside the water tank, under the offside bedding locker). And if the water supply nearest to your pitch freezes, you can take the tank out and wheel it to a water supply in the campsite’s shower building. When you insert it into its hatch, though, you’ll find that lifting 23 litres of water in through an aperture that’s a tight fit is no mean feat. Then you have to insert the pipe into the top of the tank – and that’s rather fiddly.

We’ve lived with this type of water tank in our long-term review Unicorn Barcelona through the whole of a winter – and grew accustomed to the process. Even so, it’s not a feature we regard as one of Bailey’s most user-friendly.

 Sleeping 7/10

Caravans with island beds have two huge advantages over those with beds that hug one side of the caravan. Bed-making is easier because you can walk around three sides of the bed. And each occupant can get in and out of bed without climbing over the other. There is a disadvantage of this layout in a tourer, though: you can’t have access to the under-bed storage area from the exterior.

The Cabrera’s bed base is supported on gas-filled struts. The Alde heating system’s main unit is here, at the back of the bed – but its presence doesn’t compromise storage because there is so much space under here.
There’s a wardrobe on each side of the bed, with two drawers and a small side-hinged cupboard, ideal for shoes.

Unicorn front bed construction is unique. The base is in four sections. Two sections slide out from each side under the settees, to meet in the centre. They have wooden frames, with slats on the top, and slide out smoothly on metal runners. The task is completed in seconds – really easily.

Storage 16/20

The unique slide-out bed base design also gives you a seating and storage structure that’s totally different. The bed base front panel of each of these storage lockers is a single unit. When you lift each one up, the whole structure lifts clear of the floor, enabling you to push in objects easily at ground level, with no locker lip to lift stuff over.

There’s ample space under the lounge for storage, even though the water tank gobbles up some of the space under the offside settee.

The two top lockers at the front of the caravan are enormous, because of the near-vertical shape of the front of the caravan. Two more lockers on the sides can be used for items which overflow   from the kitchen area, of which more later.
Overall, storage in the bedroom is excellent, with two large top lockers over the bed, the two wardrobes, plus a triangular dressing table on the offside.

In the toilet compartment a three-shelf corner wall cupboard will accommodate most of your toiletries. Under the washbasin, two drawers give you more good hide-away space, but there’s a design problem here. The backs of the drawers consist of two metal bars, shaped to go around the plumbing. We have the same drawers in our long-term test  Unicorn Barcelona – and we know from experience that, when towing induces vibration, items move in the drawers – and disappear down behind them, never to be seen again. In the Barcelona, two shampoo bottles and a toothbrush are trapped forever under the bottom drawer. In the Cabrera, the items will find their way down alongside the wheel arch; those with very slim hands might just be able to retrieve them!

Dining 7/10

The dining table is stored between the fridge and the oven, in its own narrow cabinet. But it’s not too narrow to enable you to get the table in and out easily.
Bailey’s designers economised on furniture in the front of the Cabrera, in order to create space to achieve that brilliant bed and en-suite arrangement. There’s no central front chest of drawers – and, of course you also miss out on the pull-out, two-seater table that goes with it.  But you do have a coffee or drinks table. It’s roughly half-moon shaped, and clips to a plastic runner on the edge of the window sill. A slim monopod leg goes into a cup; a half-turn easily secures it.
When you use the large table, you can either remove the coffee table or leave it in place; there’s enough lounge-length for both.

Lounge 8/10

There’s plenty of lounging space for four here, although the settees aren’t long enough for you to lie out full length to relax. But then that’s what the bed is for. And there is a mounting bracket, aerial and power points in the bedroom for the Avtex television that comes with the package. When you’re watching television in the lounge, you’d put the TV on the dresser, where there’s also a set of connection points.
Lounge lighting is a feature of Unicorns. Strips of LEDs run under all three locker areas and four very bright spotlights focus light down on the seating areas.

Kitchen 12/20

So far, we’ve given the Cabrera high scores in each section. Sadly, this couldn’t be sustained in the kitchen. The problem is lower storage; put simply, there isn’t any. On the positive side, the two wide top cupboards, with opaque-white frosted plastic doors, will accommodate all your tableware items plus large, lightweight items such as cereal packets and pasta – and much more. But you’ll find the lack of lower cupboards a problem if you habitually carry  heavy items such as jars of jam, cans of food or soft drinks in cartons or bottles. There’s a partial solution: the dresser on the nearside has two drawers, plus a cabinet beneath with a hinged, drop-down door. Canned foods can go in here, but they will slink down the back of the shelf and disappear into the wheel arch cavity, as we’ve already noted. From here they will make their ?way under the base of the cabinet – and they’ll stay here; you can’t reach into this area.
Kitchen surface area matches the needs of cooking for two or four, especially when the sink cover is in place; this is flush with the edges of the sink, so truly increases working surface area.

Build 8/10

Bailey builds its caravans without wood in the structure (the system is called Alu-Tech). Unicorns also have the hot water-based Alde heating method built into the furniture design; heat rises from behind the backs of the seating and there’s a radiator in the washbasin room to keep you warm and also dry your shower towels.

Towing 8/10

With the AL-KO ATC stability enhancement device as standard, Unicorns are equipped to help keep you safe from the risk of snaking. The Cabrera passed its road test easily; it was an unremarkable tow, in a positive way. This is a caravan made for true touring – it’s light for its length and high spec; ideal, we’d say, for long tows across the continent. VC

TOWMATCH INFO

Weight (MTPLM): 1598kg

To tow this caravan at 85% you need a car kerbweight of 1880kg

To tow this caravan at 100% you need a car kerbweight of 1598kg

TECHNICAL DATA

BODY: 5.78m

OVERALL: 7.35m

WIDTH: 2.28m

HEADROOM: 1.96m

MIRO: 1441kg

MTPLM: 1598kg

AXLES: 1

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